Alabama Cop Arrested, Fired for Allegedly Stealing Pokémon Cards From Walmart

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A Calhoun County, Alabama corrections officer got arrested and fired for allegedly stealing Pokémon cards from Walmart while still in uniform.

As reported by Alabama’s online news outlet Advance Local, the theft occurred at a Walmart in Oxford last Saturday night. Calhoun County Sheriff Matthew Wade said the store’s loss prevention employees saw Officer Josh Hardy open multiple packs of Pokémon cards, stuff them in his pockets, and attempt to walk out of the store without paying for them. When the employees confronted Hardy, he fled the scene on foot.

The staff reported the incident to Oxford Police, and the officers searched for Hardy until they found him at a local restaurant. They charged him with theft and placed him in Oxford County Jail.

“It is with great embarrassment that we have to report this incident, and Hardy has been terminated from the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office,” Wade said to the public. “He has tarnished our agency and the image of all law enforcement. As sheriff, I promised to be transparent and hold my staff accountable to standard higher than average citizens.”

As embarrassing as it, this incident speaks to the risks people have taken to get their hands on the high-demand trading cards, as well as trading cards from other franchises, in the last two years. In March 2021, a 28-year-old man got arrested for using a rope to descend from a six-story building to steal nearly $10,000 worth of Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards along with some cash from a store in Tokyo’s Higashi-Ikebukuro district. A few weeks earlier, a man in Georgia misused his COVID-19 relief money to buy a rare, shiny Charizard card and got sent to prison for it. In February 2022, a thief broke through the walls of an independent gaming store in Minnesota to steal $250,000 worth of Pokémon merchandise, including sealed booster boxes of cards worth up to $100 each. And last week, a couple of thieves stole $300,000 worth of Magic: The Gathering trading cards from Gen Con.

Meanwhile, rapper Post Malone bought Magic: The Gathering’s “The One Ring” card for $2 million earlier this month. The special edition Lord of the Rings card was worth that much because it was printed in Elvish.

Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.